Certain high speed electronic cable terminals employ arrays of spring pins to contact pads or lands of a circuit board or integrated circuit under test, or to contact connections of an electronic device for a permanent connection. The spring pins are straight, elongated pins received in cylindrical sleeves, and which are axially biased by spring pressure to an extended position. All pins extend in the same direction, with all the pin tips in a common plane. Contact is made by aligning the terminal with the device being probed or contacted, and applying axial pressure to ensure contact by each pin with a minimum pressure. The range of motion of each pin accommodates contour variations in the device being contacted, and slight variations in the position of each pin.
For applications in which very high frequency signals are to be transmitted, the cable to which the terminal is connected may be formed of coaxial wires, each shielded to provide consistent performance and to prevent cross talk and other electronic interference. A terminal housing having a metal shield layer encloses the sleeves retaining the pins. One such particularly effective device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,575,772 to Soubh, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. This prior art connector has proven effective at providing a high impedance/high frequency probe assembly with relatively small probe spacing. It is believed to be useful for frequencies as high as 5 GHz. However, while effective, this limitation prevents usage for higher frequency applications.